


The Endosymbiosis

by Derin



Series: Parting the Clouds [8]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 00:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 15,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3228773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Derin/pseuds/Derin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill is trapped on Earth for the time being, and the Animorphs have taken him in. But it's starting to become clear that they can't necessarily trust Ax. Just because the Animorphs and the andalites have the same enemy doesn't mean they have the same goals, and Ax's secrecy and suspicious behaviour is starting to unnerve the others. Just how much can they trust the young aristh? And can they work together well enough to keep fighting the invasion?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to JustAnotherGhostwriter, who has generously loaned her awesome betaing skills and general support to this project from start to finish and without whom this would almost certainly not exist (and would certainly be much worse), and Pawnofanellimist, as well as my innumerable temporary beta readers. Also thanks to Featherquillpen, who came up with the series title.

My name is Cassie, and my friend is an alien.

Well, he might not consider himself our friend, exactly. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill was a brother-in-arms, though, and I trusted him with my life. We all had, at least once. But even though he hadn't suggested trying to get home since our disastrous attempt to capture a bug fighter, he'd always given off a sort of vibe that he didn't really want to be one of us. He didn't come to our meetings unless he had to. Even after all this time, he still wasn't answering my questions about morphing technology. Or his culture. Or even his physiology. After all this time, I still hadn't figured out how exactly to ask how he ate without a mouth. It was circumstances that kept him by our side. And while I still wasn't really sure what to think of him, he'd always lived up to his vow of allegiance, doing whatever Jake asked of him and risking his own life to protect ours.

That was good enough.

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Rachel muttered to me as we headed over to the meeting point at the edge of the forest behind my farm. The others were already waiting for us. Rachel, not liking a dangerous plan? That didn't happen often. Wrong kind of dangerous, I guess.

I glanced at her tired face. The Ellimist thing and having to choose between living with her dad and the life she knew had taken a lot out of her, but she seemed to be recovering. She didn't look like she was about to break down at any moment. And she hadn't just disappeared for a few days, like Tobias had, although crazy bear rampages probably weren't any better.

“I think it's a good idea,” I said. “It can't all be yeerk fighting. If that's all we do, we're going to burn out. Besides, Ax wants to learn about human culture.”

“So we're taking him to a movie?”

“Hey, it wasn't my idea.” I broke into a jog until we got close enough to the others to converse comfortably.

"Okay, let's do this," Jake said. He glanced at Ax, who looked expectant, then at his watch. "We have time for Ax to watch the first hour of the movie. Any more, and we run too close to the time limit. Rachel? You have the backup plan ready? Where does Ax go if he needs an emergency demorph?"

"The dressing rooms at Nordstrom's. They're big and private. Best dressing rooms in the mall. Marco and I will be posted outside the theater, ready to rush him there if an emergency situation develops."

"And Rachel promises not to stop and shop in Junior Miss on the way," I said, grinning.

Jake searched the sky. Up above the tree-tops, a red-tailed hawk floated on a warm breeze. "Tobias!" Jake yelled.

<All clear,> Tobias called down in thought-speak. <I don't see anyone.>

Ax began to morph. Watching him turn into a human was always really weird, and it didn't help that his human form looked kind of like a mix of all of us. But then, he had made his human form by literally combining our DNA, so I guess it was a mix of all of us.

The first obvious change was his arms thickening. His seven slender fingers became five broader ones. His tail shrivelled up and was sucked into his spine. He reared up onto his hind legs just as his front legs disappeared, but he couldn't stay in that pose forever.

"Grab him, he's going to fail over," Jake said. He and Marco each grabbed an arm as his shoulders broadened and his spine straightened with a sickening click.

"Hey, hey, clothing!" Rachel said, making a face. "Clothing. Don't forget the morphing suit, Ax."

Ax didn't forget. The last thing to go was his blue fur, and when it did, he was wearing a bathing suit.

"Are you done?" Jake asked.

"Yes. Yessss. Ssssss. Yes-suh. I am in human morph."

The word thing again. That might be a problem.

“Ax,” I said gently, “if you play with sounds like that in public, people are going to be suspicious.” Probably more suspicious that he was mentally ill than that he was an alien, but whatever.

“The sounds are not the problem,” Marco said. “The food court is the problem. Are you sure you don't want me in there with you?”

“We've been through this,” Jake said patiently. “Cassie's better at... culture and people and stuff. This is a learning experience for Ax, remember?”

“Yes, we've been over why it's a good idea for you and Cassie to go to the movies together,” Marco said with a slight smile, “but Rachel and me waiting together is cover-blowing stuff. I mean, anybody sees us, they might think we're dating – and since that's impossible, they'll realise we're escorting an alien in the mall.”

“If people think we're dating, you're not the one who's going to be coming off badly, Marco,” Rachel said, wrinkling her nose. “But I still think this is stupid. We destroyed the Kandrona! We know the yeerks won't get another one set up for at least another week. We should be hitting them hard, now!”

"Look, you guys," Jake said. "We hurt the yeerks. It was a good job. But we also know that they have a replacement Kandrona being set up, so don't assume they're weak. Besides, if they are weak, they sure haven't shown it. I expected to see yeerks dying left and right, and former Controllers walking free again. Hasn't happened. Somehow they've maintained."

"We can't know what is going on with the yeerks," I pointed out. "Just because we haven't seen them suffer doesn't mean they haven't."

"Okay, look, here we are again, talking about yeerks," Jake said impatiently. "We have just come from a very, very unpleasant battle. And we came very close to ending up dead. And it's not the first time. So we are going to relax and be normal. We are going to the movie. And we are going to have fun. And no one… Rachel... is going to look for a fight."

"Don't you love it when he gets all forceful like that?" Marco stage-whispered to me. "He's just so Schwarzenegger sometimes."

He was trying to make me blush, of course. It worked.

"Okay, Ax," Jake said. "Time to get dressed."

"Prince Jake, I am already wearing this garment," Ax replied, pointing to his bathing suit. "Wearing. Ing. Ing-uh."

"Don't call me 'Prince,'” Jake said.

"Ax, you're dressed like an escapee from the Ice Capades," Marco said.

"You can't go out in public wearing speedos," Rachel said. "It's a major fashion 'don't.' Here."

She handed him a bag of clothes. It took Ax several minutes, with occasional help from Jake and Marco, to get everything on right.

We all stared. Even Tobias flew down to stare.

"Rachel, he looks like he's going to the country club to play polo," Marco said. "I knew we shouldn't let you pick the clothes. He's like a bully magnet. Even I want to beat him up."

"It's a classic look," Rachel said angrily. "Like you're Mister Fashion? A person who dresses like Beavis?"

"I think he looks cute," I said.

<Well, that's the kiss of death,> Tobias remarked from his perch in the tree above.

"It is?" Ax asked.

<Just an expression, Ax-man,> Tobias said. <You'll have fun.>

“I do not undersssstand... tan-duh... the purpose of extra clothing. Exsssstra clothinnng. Ing.”

“It's a culture thing,” I pointed out. “Humans cover up body parts that humans find sexually attractive. Generally, the more covered, the more polite it is, but there are exceptions for convenience. Like, less skin is covered in hot weather because clothing is hot. And less is covered at the beach because it's hard to swim when weighed down by clothing. But the more sexual a body part is to humans, the more important it is to cover it up.”

Jake shot Marco a tiny, smug look, then smiled at Ax. "Let's do this. If anyone tries to beat you up, we'll protect you.”


	2. Chapter 2

“I did not understand the plot of that story," Ax said.

"That was a preview, Ax," Jake explained. "It's just to give you an idea what the whole movie will be like when it comes out."

"Yes. I see. Why is the screen flat and two-dimensional? Flat. Flat-tuh."

"Because that's how movies are."

"Ah."

"You want some popcorn?" I asked, proffering the box over Jake's lap. One panicked look from Jake suggested that this might be a mistake.

"Is it food?" Ax asked.

"Well, sort of," Jake said. "But, Ax? You know how you get around food, okay? So remember - don't get carried away."

Ax intently watched me eat a couple of handfuls of popcorn before sticking his own hand in. He shoved some in his mouth and chewed, very slowly.

Then, very quickly, he took another handful. And a third.

"This is excellent!" he cried.

"It tastes like it's about a week old," I pointed out.

"What are these flavors? What are they called?"

"I don't know. Salt? Grease?"

"Salt!" he said, savoring the very sound of the word. "Salt! And grease! Greee-suh!"

"Hey, hold it down," someone behind us said. "The movie is starting."

"Salt. Salt-tuh. Grease. Greeeesss."

"Ax, don't talk so loud, okay?" Jake suggested.

"Here, just take the box," I whispered. At least while he was eating, he couldn't talk.

He got through the popcorn a lot faster than I'd expected. But he didn't let that stop him.

“Ax?” I whispered. "You don't eat the box."

"It tasted of salt and grease," he countered.

The movie began. I think it was Star Wars or something. Science fiction has never really been my thing. Which was kind of laughable, what with the alien invasion.

"What type of ship is that?" Ax asked. "It looks somewhat like a Hawjabran freighter."

"That's the Enterprise," Jake whispered. "It's not real. It's just made-up."

"Yes, I know," Ax said. "I do know what a real interstellar spacecraft looks like."

Jake and I exchanged a smile.

Ax seemed to become bored pretty fast. I think the movie confused him. Being unfamiliar with human technology, it must have been hard for him to tell what was part of human culture from what was made up. Perhaps a science fiction movie hadn't been a great choice. It had seemed like a sensible decision at the time.

Jake and I, to our eternal shame, did get absorbed by the movie, science fiction or not. I could feel the heat of his hand on the back of mine where they sat next to each other on our shared armrest. My attention was divided between some kind of wrinkly-foreheaded alien talking about honor in battle, and Jake's deep, steady breathing next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that he was motionless, staring straight at the screen as much as I was.

Honor in battle. Huh.

We tried; we really did. But once the teeth were out and the arm-blades flailing, battle was a matter of survival. I'd killed on purpose during the Kandrona thing. I'd acknowledged that the only way the mission could succeed was by killing our attackers, and then I'd made the conscious decision to do exactly that. A throatless hork-bajir had landed in front of me, and the boy sitting right next to me in the theatre had caused that wound. On purpose.

I slipped my hand into Jake's. He closed his broad fingers around it. The movie continued.

Suddenly, Jake tensed. “Ax!” he hissed. “Where's Ax?”

I glanced at the aisle. He wasn't there. Where could he have gone, so quickly? If he needed to leave, wouldn't he have told us first?

Our confusion didn't last long. There was a commotion a few rows back.

"MOMMY!" a young voice screamed.

"What do you think you're doing?" a woman cried.

"MOMMY! He's trying to take my candy!”

Ax was kneeling on the floor. He was quite literally trying to take candy from a small child. Fortunately, we'd chosen seats close to the aisle in case something went wrong; Jake and I shuffled out, and dashed over to him.

"I merely wish to enjoy the brown globules!" Ax was shouting. “Globules! Ules!”

Jake and I each grabbed an arm and pulled him out into the aisle. With Jake's strength and my experience lugging struggling animals around, it was no trouble to pull him away from the kid and towards the back of the theatre.

“Globules!” he cried, before Jake clapped a hand over his mouth. “Uuuule-zuh!”


	3. Chapter 3

Ax managed to get a grip as we moved, and was pretty much normal by the time we got him out of the theater. He was still muttering “globules” under his breath, but at least he wasn't trying to fight children

"Okay, I think we have learned a lesson here," Jake said in a reasonable, patient voice. "No chocolate for Ax."

"Chocolate? Chock? Chock-lit? The brown globules are called chocolate? What about the brightly colored pellets?"

"Actually, the globules are called Raisinets. The pellets are M&M's. Are you under control now?” There was a glimmer of amusement under his carefully reasonable tone.

"Yes," Ax said shakily. "I ... the flavor! It was just so wonderful."

Marco and Rachel sauntered up behind us. They shared a quick glance, seemed to decide it wouldn't be suspicious to chat with their best friends, and came over.

“Why does Ax have chocolate on his face?” Marco asked.

“Long story,” Jake muttered as we headed outside.

<Hey, you guys.> Tobias. <Was the movie that bad?>

Jake raised his hand, palm-down, in a so-so sign. He couldn't respond, of course.

<There's kind of a thing going on,> Tobias said. <Just around the corner from you. Some guy staggering around and screaming at the top of his lungs. Cops are coming, fast. I'm pretty sure I heard the word 'yeerk.' He's heading your way.>

Just then, I began to hear it, too. Shouting.

"Over there," Marco said tersely.

A man appeared and sagged against the wall of a store. He clutched at his head. People edged away.

"Listen to me! Listen to me!" he cried, looking around wildly. "They're here! They're here! They're everywhere! The yeerks are here!"

I froze. So did everybody else.

"What do we do?" Marco asked.

"They're heeeeere!" the man cried. "Aaaaah-hhh!" He suddenly clapped both his hands over his left ear. "Got you! Got you! Die! Die!"

"He's a Controller," Ax said. "The yeerk in his head is dying."

"I know," Jake said neutrally. Jake had been unconscious when the yeerk in his brain died – I'd made sure of it – but I had no idea what had gone on in his head. It wasn't something he liked to talk about. Did he live through this sort of thing, but unable to move?

“The yeerks won't stand for this,” Rachel said. “They'll be here soon.” She was already looking around for a place to morph.

“We can't start a fight here, we're surrounded by civilians!” I hissed.

Jake stared at the man. He seemed to make a decision. “Ax,” he said, “use thought-speak. Tell the man that we can help him if he stops making a scene. Do not tell him where we are.”

“Jake, we can't be here!” Marco hissed. “It's dangerous to be a witness! Remember the construction site?”

Jake nodded once. I guess it's hard to forget your own brother ordering people to kill or enslave you in case you saw too much. “Then we should do this quick,” was all Jake said. “Ax, relay the message.”

“Yes, Prince Jake.”

The man suddenly went silent. He stood up straight – or at least tried to, he seemed to be having a problem with balance – and started looking around wildly.

“We have to get him away from these crowds,” Jake said quietly.

“Into the theater?” Rachel suggested. “It's dark, at least.”

“There's a yeerk pool entrance there,” Marco reminded us.

“Alley,” Rachel said, “until we figure out our next move. That way, if the yeerks try to take him, we can protect him without bystanders getting in the way.”

“Do it, Ax,” Jake said. “Keep Tobias updated and have him track this guy. We can't follow, it would look suspicious.”

The man started walking away as quickly as he could manage, stumbling and swerving and occasionally pulling at his ear, but at least he'd stopped shouting. I could hear an ambulance siren. It was coming closer. A concerned-looking man about my father's age pulled away from the crowd to take the man's arm. “Hey, dude, are you okay?”

The man took one look at his helper and his eyes bulged. “You!” He raised his voice. “Don't trust him! It's a yeerk! They're everywhere! Everywhere!” He shoved the man away and bolted straight into the crowd, knocking a girl over. I don't know whether the people who helped her up and held him down were Controllers or just people trying to help.

<Guys, you have an ambulance about to pull up,> Tobias reported, apparently under the impression that we were deaf. <Also a police car, about two blocks back.> The police were infiltrated by the yeerks. Given that they had a hospital, the ambulance service probably was as well.

“We have to get out of here,” Marco muttered.

Jake shook his head. “Battle morphs. We can – ”

“Jake,” I said gently, “we can't. Getting ourselves killed won't help this man or anybody else.”

Finally, he nodded. Rachel and I peeled away from the boys to look like less of a group, and we walked away.

“I can't believe we have a freed Controller right there and we're just letting him go,” Rachel hissed.

“After what we did to them,” I pointed out, “there are bound to be others.”


	4. Chapter 4

"Maybe it's finally starting,” Jake said, eyes glittering with a mad sort of hope. “It may just be this one guy, but there may be more. Finally! Yeerks dying! Controllers suddenly free and human again." He grinned. It was a savage look.

We were back in Ax's meadow.

"They'll die, and their hosts will be free! At first, people will think they're nuts. But when they have ten, twenty, fifty people all yelling about the yeerks? They won't be able to cover that up. Not for long!"

Marco nodded. "I'm sure some of the cops are Controllers, but they can't all be. Jake's right. The truth will get out! This is going to work! The truth is going to come out!"

"The replacement Kandrona is supposed to be here soon," Rachel pointed out. "We should have seen a lot more of this. The yeerks must have found a way to keep this from happening until now."

“So what went wrong?” I asked. They were right, this was better than what we could have hoped for. I thought destroying the Kandrona might slow them down a bit, but this sort of thing... if we could make sure that whatever had happened, kept happening...

If we could get some freed people out of the city...

<Something must have broken,> Ax said. <There are many things that can go wrong. Especially if they were not prepared for this sort of emergency. It is likely that the yeerks were too arrogant to think anybody could touch their Kandrona.>

Jake and I exchanged an amused glance. Ax, calling another species arrogant.

“I didn't think things broke for you space people,” Marco said.

<Things break.>

“They're in chaos,” Rachel said. “We should strike now, while they're trying to contain this. Spread them thin.”

“And do what, exactly?” Marco asked.

“We could go down to the yeerk pool – ”

“The yeerk pool isn't working right now, remember? It's probably abandoned.”

“Exactly! So we destroy it. We hit them with another repair job. Even when they get their Kandrona up, we make sure they can't use it right away. And while they're working on that... we find something else to break.”

<There would be a security detail at the pool,> Ax pointed out thoughtfully, <but it will not be too crowded.>

It was a good idea. But... “How do we destroy a hole in the ground without bringing the city down on it?” I asked. “I mean, I can see how we can make it a lot less pretty. Take out the piers, maybe the cafeteria. But that won't make it unusable.”

“The cages,” Jake said suddenly. “We destroy every one of those cages. We destroy all the construction equipment. If we can find a safe way to collapse any entrances, we do it.”

“Some of those buildings must have equipment and supplies,” Marco said. “We can destroy all that. Maybe grab ourselves a few more Dracon beams.”

“We show those slugs that nothing they have is untouchable,” Rachel said. “We make them afraid. We keep them scrambling to keep up.”

<They might expect this sort of attack, after the Kandrona,> Tobias said. <You guys could be walking into a trap.>

“Then we bring it down on them,” Rachel said calmly. “We make them pull effort away from this cover-up to chase us. You know what Visser Three's like.”

<HOW DARE those andalite fools attack us like this!> Tobias bellowed in a surprisingly good impression. <I WANT THEM FOUND! NOW!>

“Still,” Marco said, “we need to plan this carefully. Just once I'd like to go down to the yeerk pool and not almost die.”

“We can't do it until the weekend anyway,” Rachel said. “Even with all this going on, if we all skip school at once...” she shrugged.

<That leaves us a pretty narrow window,> Tobias said. <There's only one weekend before we can reasonably expect a replacement Kandrona. We get one chance at this.>

“Then we have to get it right,” Jake said. “Alright, let's all go home. We're going to need our rest. This could be our most important mission yet.”

“’Get it right’,” Marco muttered as he closed his eyes and started to morph. “Great plan there. With thinking like that it’s amazing we haven’t beaten the yeerks already.”

Jake, I noticed, wasn’t morphing with the rest of us; he was wandering off along the edge of the trees, looking thoughtful. I waited for the others to leave and followed him. “Hey.”

“Hey, Cassie.”

“It's going to be okay, you realise? This is a good thing.”

“I know. I just...” he bit his lip.

“What is it?”

“They've slipped up. They're losing people. Even if it's just that one guy, us destroying everything down at the yeerk pool is going to make it hard to use, and they're going to lose more. I think...” He turned to look at me, and I saw that crazy hope back in his eyes. “I think this is the time. This is our best chance to save Tom.”


	5. Chapter 5

The person Jake was fighting for. At least to start with. He hated the yeerks, of course, and with Tom freed I was sure we'd still have Jake show up in my barn the next day... but what about the next week? The month after that? The fight was getting to all of us. With his family safe, how long would Jake stick around?

No, I wasn't giving him enough credit. He wouldn't abandon us. Would he? If I was totally honest with myself, I didn't really know Jake all that well. I trusted him with my life, of course. And I... liked him, a lot. But that wasn't the same as knowing someone. How well did I know any of the Animorphs, except Rachel? Rachel, who I was lying to by not telling her that I was using her father. Were any of them really my friends? Did I even deserve to have friends?

No, no. I had to believe in Jake. Jake wasn't Ax. This was his planet, too.

Besides, I didn’t have time to worry about Jake just then. There was so much going on. The yeerk pool. Rescuing Tom. No time to work with, although the yeerk pool attack should buy us some. And I was falling behind in school. I did my history homework under the table in English class, carefully not looking at Jake who sat across the room, and hoped Mr Pardue wouldn't notice.

Normally Mr Pardue didn’t care what we did, but tht day he seemed a little on edge. He was normally the type to drone on over any noise, but that day, the slightest whisper in the back row got is attention. "What is going on back there? Quiet down," he demanded, glaring at a couple of boys. “Now, in chapter seven... What is... what… wha…" Suddenly, he clutched at his head with both hands. "Everyone be quiet! Quiet!"

Nobody was talking. We were all just staring.

"Mr. Pardue, are you okay?" Jake asked.

"Okay?" Mr. Pardue demanded in a loud, angry voice. "Am I okay? Am I – aaaaahhhhh!" Without warning, he pitched forward. Writhing on the floor, he clawed at his head with his hands.

And he cried. "Yeerk! Get out of me!" His nails were cutting into the sides of his face, leaving little trails of blood.

"What's happening?! What's happening?!" another student cried.

Someone else ran from the room into the hallway and began to shout, "Help! Help! Help!"

Jake and I shared a look. Two. Two was more than an oversight. Two meant the yeerks were having a problem.

"Stop damaging our body!" Mr. Pardue cried. Then, as if he were answering himself, he said in a slurred voice, "Get out my head! Get out of my head! You're finished!"

Jake and I leapt up. A lot of other students had started to crowd around Mr Pardue. I pushed through them.

“It's okay!” I called. “He's having a fit. I know how to deal with this. It's basic first aid.” I pushed up my sleeves in a practised manner, as if I was about to go help some wounded animal. “Everyone give him space. Don't get too close. Jake, come help me.” Behind us, the bell for the end of class rang. Just what we needed. More crowds.

Jake knelt by Mr Pardue's head and grabbed his hands, pulling them away from his face while I, for the look of the thing, went into the standard routine of how to treat a patient having a fit.

"I know what this is," Jake whispered. "I know what this is, Mr. Pardue. Ride it out. The yeerk will die. You'll be free." He kept talking our teacher through it, while I took his tie off and cushioned his head with my jacket. The other students were looking restless, uncertain. We had to look like we had a plan.

"I've been there," Jake whispered. "I've done it, Mr. Pardue. I was a Controller for a while. I survived. Just hang in."

“Jenny, get a first-aid kit,” I commanded. A girl nodded and headed off. “Everyone else – ”

"All right, kids, everyone out," Chapman's voice rang out as he marched into the room. "Everyone out to the playground. Out of the building. Mr. Pardue is just sick."

"You!" Mr. Pardue cried. "No! Chapman is... he's..."

"I said OUT!" Chapman roared.

Everyone did as he said. Except Jake, who stayed where he was, holding Mr Pardue's hands. I put a hand on Jake's shoulder. “Come on, Jake. We have to go.”

Jake took a long time to look up. Slowly he nodded. "Yeah. Hope he gets better." He looked at Chapman. "He will get better, won't he, Mr. Chapman?"

"Who can say?" the Controller answered coldly.

We started to walk away. I fought to keep tears out of my eyes, to look normal. Jake's fists were clenched so tight that his knuckles were white. He stopped at the door, and we looked back to see Chapman draw a short steel cylinder from his pocket. He pressed it against the neck of the weeping teacher.

"No!" Mr. Pardue cried. "No!"

Then, very quickly, Mr. Pardue fell silent.

Jake turned and ran. He pushed his way through students clustered just outside the classroom. I was running too, I realised; anything to get out of there.

There were students everywhere. We ducked into an empty classroom. Jake leaned on the door, breathing hard. “He killed him,” he said.

“I know.”

“And that guy in the mall?”

I shrugged. “It'd be kind of a waste of hosts, wouldn't it? Wouldn't they just get them new yeerks after all this is over? I mean, obviously Chapman couldn't drag Mr Pardue through halls crowded with students while he was screaming about yeerks, but – oh, god, Jake... I bet he only had to kill him because it happened right at the bell, when the halls were crowded. At any other time, he probably would've been reinfested.”

Jake shook his head. “Terrible luck.”

“If they had've reinfested him, the yeerk would remember you telling him how you used to be a Controller!”

Jake paled. “We need to be careful.” He looked away. “The yeerks might just be killing them all anyway. But even if they aren't... Mr Pardue's death was our fault, Cassie. There'll be others. They're our fault.”

“We didn't know, Jake. We couldn't have known.” We probably could've guessed. But I honestly hadn't expected the yeerks to drop the ball like that. I had just thought destroying the Kandrona would slow them down.

Jake pursed his lips and went quiet. That wasn’t a good sign. I waited for him to voice what he was feeling.

I didn’t have to wait long. “I bet Ax knew. And he didn't warn us.”

“Ax is a kid, like us! He's never been in this situation before.”

“But he's studied yeerks. He knows how they operate.”

“We can't just assume – ”

“We can ask, though.”

Well, he wasn't blaming himself for everything for once. I wasn't sure if this was better or worse.


	6. Chapter 6

Sometimes I think it'd be easier if all the Animorphs just moved into the forest permanently.

Jake didn't bother calling the others. I don't think he really wanted me along, either, but he didn't tell me to leave as we morphed wolf and went to visit Ax. Tobias swooped in to join us on the last third or so of our journey. He and Ax didn't live together, but they lived pretty close. And Tobias knew the area well enough to know there weren't any real wolves in it.

<Hey, guys. What's up?>

<Just going for a little chat with our alien friend,> Jake said tersely.

We demorphed at the edge of Ax's little meadow. He trotted up to meet us. <Hello, Prince Jake. Hello, Cassie.>

“Hi, Ax,” I said.

“We watched a teacher die today,” Jake said. “He was a Controller. His yeerk was starving. Chapman pushed a silver cylinder thing against his neck, and he went quiet. He killed him, didn't he?”

I'm no expert on andalite body language, but Ax didn't look at all surprised. <Yes.>

"Every human-Controller whose yeerk dies in an inconvenient place is going to be eliminated. That's true, isn't it?"

<Yes, most likely.>

“You knew this would happen.”

Ax didn't respond. He just watched Jake with his main eyes.

"My brother. Tom. He's a Controller. What about him?"

<The yeerks will save as many as they can. Your brother is a high-ranking Controller, so – >

“ _Used_ to be high-ranking, Ax! Before the... the hospital thing. We have no idea of his current yeerk's standing.” Jake took a deep, calming breath, and rubbed his temples. “But you did know this would happen.”

<Yes.>

“I thought so. Anybody else would've shown some disbelief. How did you know?”

Ax hesitated.

“How?”

<Because it's happened before. You think this is the first planet the yeerks have infiltrated? Do you think Earth is the only place where we andalites have fought them? They do not leave witnesses.>

"I don't like you keeping secrets from me, Ax. I'm your friend. We're your friends. We should know whatever you know. You didn't warn me about this."

<Terrible things happen in war. You did what you had to do. Destroying the Kandrona was part of that war.>

“You thought that if we knew, we wouldn't go through with it,” Jake said. It wasn't a question.

<Yes.>

For the first time, I realised that the andalites weren't fighting the same war as we were. We were fighting to keep our planet. They were fighting to stop the yeerks. Here on Earth, those goals weren't too far apart. But they would never quite be the same thing.

Jake seemed to have reached a similar conclusion. He stared at Ax for a very long time. Ax looked like he wanted to look away, but he held Jake's gaze. Finally, Jake spoke.

"You know something, Ax? Sometimes I get the feeling we humans are just pawns in this big game between you andalites and the yeerks. We're just ammunition in this war, aren't we? Too dumb to know what's going on. Too primitive to be real warriors."

<That is not the way it is.>

"You fight alongside us, Ax. As far as I'm concerned, you're one of us. But then I find out you're keeping secrets. There's no trust when you keep secrets. You should have told me this is what the yeerks would do. You know I have a brother… you know about Tom. I had a right to know what could happen."

<Maybe you would not have destroyed the Kandrona if you had known it could endanger Tom.>

Jake leaned closer to Ax, until their faces were inches apart. "That's what you think? You know what, Ax? You're right to try and learn more about humans. Because you don't know a thing about us. Not a thing.”

And then he strode off through the trees, deaf to my calls for him to come back.


	7. Chapter 7

Jake called a quick meeting of the Animorphs in the barn, without Ax. He briefly explained what had happened at the school, and Ax's reaction.

Surprisingly, Rachel looked the most upset. “Ugh, and we trusted him!” she said, sounding personally betrayed. I wasn't sure where that feeling had come from. Tobias and Ax had somehow become close despite Ax being no more open with him than with anyone else, Jake had taken Ax's safety and welfare on as a personal responsibility, and I was really curious about andalites in general and Ax in particular. But Rachel and Marco never seemed to show much interest in him, outside of missions.

“He already told us he can't tell us about some things,” I reminded them. “He can't share technology with us, for instance. It's against the law.”

“Yeah, andalite law,” Marco said. “The law Elfangor broke to give Earth a fighting chance. Ax is a long way from home and he's part of that fighting chance. Also, I can't be the only one wondering this... how does he eat?!”

“We can't mistrust him based on physiological differences,” I said.

“That’s not the point, Cassie. He’s manipulating us by keeping secrets.”

“I know, Jake. I was there. And I agree: the more information we have, the better we can fight. If he's fighting with us, he should share. But we should try to see this from his point of view.”

Marco rolled his eyes. “Right, Cassie, if we're all really understanding and hug this out then I'm sure the problem will go away.”

“Maybe it will. At the absolute least, Ax is our ally. The more we can trust each other, the better, but us sitting about acting wounded and being all self-righteous isn't going to make that happen. We need to show him he can trust us.”

“Uh, we did, remember?” Marco said. “When we rescued him, found him a place to stay, and tried to teach him about our culture? And then he treated us like dim-witted trench-diggers in an andalite-yeerk conflict?”

“And I'm sure being angry and excluding him will go a long way towards changing his mind on that, Marco.” I crossed my arms. “Do you realise how many meetings we've had without Ax?”

“He chooses not to come,” Rachel pointed out.

“We should have made him come. He'd come if Jake ordered it. We've always been a democracy, but he's a soldier. Or soldier-in-training, anyway. If we wanted to make it clear he was one of us, we shouldn't tolerate him behaving as if he isn't. And we just expect him to behave like one of us now?”

“You guys realise this is probably some sort of Prime Directive thing, right?” Rachel said. “He's not allowed to interfere in our culture or something? If he can't see us as more than a bunch of primitive aliens by now, after all the times we've saved each others' lives and all the battles we've fought together, I don't see how we can do anything to help that.”

“Alright, Cassie,” Marco said, “what's your plan for making Ax feel all fuzzy and included?”

“Befriending him might be a start.”

“Fine,” Jake said wearily. “Let's rest this issue a few days while Cassie tries to make friends with – ”

“No,” Marco said. “Not Cassie.”

Rachel frowned. “Why not Cassie?” she said, somewhat defensively.

“Because Cassie's already been playing friends with Ax since he arrived and it clearly isn't working. She'll just do that social manipulation thing she does.”

Jake nodded. “Good point. If we want Ax to be straightforward with us, we have to be straightforward with him. He is meant to be our friend.”

“I don't do a social manipulation thi – ”

“Yeah,” Rachel said, “you do.”

<They're not wrong,> Tobias added hesitantly.

I looked at Jake, who shrugged apologetically.

“Fine,” I said. “Not me. Then who?”


	8. Chapter 8

Marco met Ax at the edge of the woods, and waited patiently for him to morph human.

Tobias and I were overseeing the excursion as birds, in case anything went wrong. There seemed to be a lot of things that could go wrong with having an andalite in public, especially with yeerks dying all over the place.

"So," Marco said. "You want to be Pinocchio, huh?" If my osprey face was capable of it, I would've winced. He was playing a little aggressively. I would've tried to tease Ax out of his shell gently. But then, that's why I wasn't chosen for this mission.

"What?" Ax asked.                       

"Pinocchio was a little boy carved out of wood. He wanted to be a real, live human."

"I do not want to be a human. I merely wish to study them."

Marco smiled. "What a coincidence. And I want to study andalites."

There was a pause while Ax figured out the situation. "Oh. Prince Jake asked you to press me for information."

"Jake was a little ticked off that you didn't tell us everything you know," Marco said as they started to walk towards the bus stop. "Rachel was even more ticked. Come on, we have to catch the bus. You want to learn about humans, right? I thought I'd take you to a book store. Smart as you are, you can learn to read English."

"Bookstore? Book-kuh-store?"

"Yeah. Books. Fiction. History. A hundred thousand books all about the human race. And you get to choose any of them you want. We have no secrets, unlike certain species I could mention who don't even tell us a little thing like how they eat with no mouth."

"I see. You open your society to me. Soci-eteee. Teee. And you want me to do the same in return."

"Some people wanted to weasel all the information out of you, but Jake said, 'No, Ax is a friend. Show him we have nothing to hide. Maybe he'll finally decide to trust us.'"

"I have reasons for keeping secrets," he said.

Marco nodded. "Yeah, we know. Rachel says you probably aren't allowed to interfere with primitive races like humans."

The answer to that was written all over Ax's face.

Marco smiled a cold smile and nodded his head. "So that is it, right? Kind of too late for that attitude, isn't it? After all, the yeerks are interfering with us like crazy."

I couldn't hear them once they boarded the bus. Tobias and I followed at a safe, non-suspicious distance from each other. After he got off the bus, Marco stopped and slapped his pants. "Oh, man. I left the money at home. We all pitched in for your book fund. I left it on my desk. Come on."

"Where are we going? Ing? Ing-ahng-ing. That is a very satisfying sound."

"Yeah, everybody loves a good 'ing.' We have to run over to my house. Don't worry, it's just around the corner."

<Is that a good idea?> I asked Marco privately. He couldn't answer, but he gave a subtle, dismissive wave in the general direction of the sky. I supposed he was right. Ax couldn't get into much trouble standing in somebody's living room for two minutes.

Ax bought a World Almanac.

We didn't see anybody screaming about yeerks.

It was the first day in a long time where nothing went wrong.


	9. Chapter 9

The day of the yeerk pool invasion was fast approaching. We had three days. Three days to plan how to get down there, do as much damage as possible, and get out.

Jake hadn't mentioned his intention to free Tom to the others yet, either. I asked him about it, while we were waiting in his room for the others to arrive.

“Tom's been... very active,” he explained. “That's why I figured this was a good time to use my place to meet. He's barely been home. He's just been doing Sharing stuff. I think... I don't think we can take him without anyone noticing.”

“Yeah, but with their resources stretched thin, they wouldn't be able to put too much into a rescue effort even if they did notice,” I pointed out. “If we can come up with a believable reason why the andalite bandits might want him...”

“Can we, Cassie? Can we come up with something that doesn't put my parents and me in the crosshairs? Let me know if you think of something, because I've been trying.”

I didn't have much time to think about it, though, because right then, an osprey slammed into Jake's window.

“Marco!” Jake dashed over and opened the window.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

<Okay? I'm not the one we need to worry about.>

“Why are you a bird?” Jake asked.

<Because we need to go see Ax. Put some wings on, quick.>

Marco waited until we picked up Rachel to explain, claiming he didn't want to have to tell the story twice. Apparently, his father had been working from home the day that he took Ax to the bookstore. Marco's father is some kind of physicist who programs telescopes at the observatory. Sometime between the moment he'd left Ax in the living room by himself and the moment they headed out to the bookstore, the work his father had left open on his computer had turned from cutting-edge but slightly glitchy programming to a revolutionary new type of software that Marco's father couldn't even predict the potential of.

<And you're sure Ax did this?> I asked. It didn't seem to fit with his refusal to share any kind of technology.

<That is literally the only explanation,> Marco replied. <Dad thinks he's some kind of genius savant. I had a hard time convincing him not to hire him or something.>

<Maybe it's meant to be some sort of gesture of friendship?>

<What it _is_ is screwing with my dad's work and shining a spotlight on him. The yeerks see that, do you really think they're not going to be all over him like a shot? Nuh-uh. Not letting that happen. >

Tobias found Ax for us within a couple of minutes.

<What is the matter?> Ax asked as we landed and started to demorph, sounding worried. That made sense. We had just randomly chased him down, in a hurry.

<What's the matter?> Marco demanded. <You're asking what's the matter? I'll tell - > but at that moment his thoughtspeak cut out, and he merely squawked.

"What did you do?" he tried again once he had a mouth.

Ax looked puzzled. <I don't understand the question.>

"My dad's computer. You did something to it, didn't you?"

<I...I merely played the game.>

"Game? GAME?! That was no game, that was my dad's work!"

<No. It was a game. You had to find the errors in the instructions.> His eyes widened. <Oh, I understand. Your father designs games for children.>

I choked back a laugh.

"No, Ax, he writes software programs for high-tech uses. He was working with astronomers at the observatory. They were designing a program for aiming the radio telescope at the new observatory."

<Yes, it could be used for that purpose. But it was so obviously full of errors ... I assumed it was a child's game.>

"If you say 'game' again, I swear I'm going to punch you," Marco said.

Jake put his hand on Marco's shoulder. "What Marco means is, it was not a game, Ax. His father is going nuts about it."

"My dad says you may have created some whole new branch of computer software, plus, at the same time, opened up new ways to do astronomy. He showed it to the guys at the observatory. They are totally losing it! They're talking about Nobel prizes! I had to convince my dad it was just an accident. I told him you were an idiot, and you were not the next Einstein."

<Einstein. Yes. I read about him in the World Almanac. He was the first human to realize that matter and energy - >

"Ax!" Rachel exploded. "Are you not getting this? What if some Controller hears about this new software? Don't you think they might guess it was an andalite who came up with it?"

Ax rocked back like he'd been hit with something heavy.

"I think he just got it," Marco said sarcastically.

“Isn't this against your laws, anyway?” Rachel asked. “Didn't we go through that, like, two days ago?”

<What is a radio telescope?> Ax asked Marco.

He shrugged. "Like I would know? What am I, a science teacher?"

"A radio telescope is a telescope that sees by picking up radio waves and other radiation from outer space," I explained. Marco gave me an incredulous look. "Not all of us sleep through science class, Marco," I said. Besides, space had become a lot more interesting since we'd found aliens.

<I see. A primitive sensor. Yes, that would make sense. Of course, with the changes I made...>

"What?" Marco snapped. "What about the changes you made?"

<The changes I made would only...> he paused, looking speculative. I think it was speculative. Andalite expressions are hard sometimes.

"Ax, what are you hiding now!" Rachel demanded.

He didn't answer.

"Ax, Rachel asked you a question," Jake said tersely. "What is this? What's up with you?"

<Nothing is 'up' with me. I am merely thinking through the implications.> He met Jake's gaze. <We must destroy this.>

“Really?” Marco asked. “See, I figured we'd just let it sit there and advance humankind by a couple of centuries, and we can worry about the yeerks when they show up.”

<That would be an extremely bad plan! That would – >

“I know, Ax. I know.”


	10. Chapter 10

Sleep has become a bit of a luxury since we started fighting the war.

The night missions were annoying enough, but at least they were rare. (We should probably do more missions at night, actually. If we kept doing missions only on weekends, the yeerks were bound to notice. They'd notice night missions, too, but at least that wouldn't tell them anything useful.) The big problem, as far as sleep was concerned, was the nightmares. I'd woken up bleeding out, suffocating, or a slave in my own head more times than I could count. I'd seen my friends die in various interesting ways, and killed a lot of enemies in more straightforward ways. Sometimes, it was just impossible to sleep.

That was prime morph practise time.

Sometimes you can tell when you're going to have a bad night. Sometimes you're twitchy before you even go to bed, and it's not even worth trying to sleep. The night we spoke to Ax was one of those nights. So I planned to get in a good night's practise; warm up before dinner, come in to eat, then go out and practise some more. My morphing outfit was still my old sleeveless blue leotard, bought a year or so ago as part of a short-lived ambition to try gymnastics, but I wanted to practise morphing after adding a pair of elbow-length lycra gloves I'd picked up second-hand. I figured that glove sleeves were a good place to store money and notes.

The gloves took a little getting used to, but on my second try, I was able to watch them melt into hooves. Soon, I was a horse. Then, as usually happened on morphing practise nights, I decided to go for a run.

Running as a horse is nothing like running as a wolf. The wolf moves quickly, steadily, nose always aware of its surroundings. A horse can't run as far, but their big, easy strides pulling them through the air around them really does feel like freedom.

I stopped running when I noticed that another animal galloping ahead of me wasn't another horse. Andalites are pretty obvious-looking in silhouette, if you know what you're looking for. A stranger would probably just convince themselves that the humanlike torso and scorpion tail were a trick of the light, but I knew better.

I'd seen his footprints at the edge of the forest, so I knew that Ax sometimes ran there. I guess his little meadow isn't really big enough for an andalite. But I'd never run into him before, and I hadn't realised that he came so close to the farm. He himself must have realised how close he was, because as I started to demorph, he stopped, looking towards my house, and turned around.

"You might as well hang around for a while," I said.

<Cassie?> I don't think andalites have very good night vision, because he started when I stood up out of the grass, horse features still melting into my own. Frankly I would've expected a species with so many eyes to have great vision; Mother Nature seemed to be putting all her chips into visual awareness there. But then I didn't really know what the andalite homeworld was like. Maybe it didn't really get dark there.

<You morphed a horse,> he said.

"I do that sometimes. I like running. But don't tell Jake. He'd be mad at me using morphing for personal things."

<I don't believe he would be angry. I am no expert on humans, but I believe Prince Jake has a special affection for you.>

I could feel myself blushing. “Um, how is your study of humans going?"

<I have read the World Almanac.>

"So, what do you think?"

<I think humans are interesting.>

"Uh-huh. What do you really think?"

Ax took his time answering. <I think there is a second reason why the yeerks wish to enslave your species.>

"Aside from being able to have a lot of human hosts? Why?"

<They're afraid of you.>

"Afraid of us? Why?" I laughed. "Have you been reading all the stuff about wars? Humans aren't just about fighting wars. It may seem that way, but - "

<Every species fights wars,> he said. <In the past, andalites made war on other andalites. The taxxons are cannibals. And the yeerks...>

"Yeah, well, we humans haven't been exactly perfect."

<Every species has something to be ashamed of. Every species carries some terrible guilt.> He said it almost like a confession. But I figured I wouldn't get any more information by pressing the issue.

"So if it isn't the wars that bother you, what is it?"

<You discovered radioactivity in 1896. In 1945 you exploded an atomic weapon. Forty-nine years. In 1903 you flew for the first time. Sixty-six years later, you landed on your moon.>

"You really did read the World Almanac, didn't you?" I said with a smile. "You're saying we do things quickly?"

<I'm saying that if the yeerks don't destroy you now, they know that fifty years from now, humans will be capable of faster-than-light travel. And a hundred years from now… who knows?>

"How long did it take you andalites to do those things?"

<I...I don't remember,> he replied, obviously lying.

"I see." I didn't try to hide the disappointment in my voice.

<I...> he hung his head. <I am bound by my oath as an andalite warrior. We must never give andalite technology to any other species, and we try not to, you know, talk about ourselves to other species.>

"Not even if it might help us beat the yeerks? But isn't that what your brother did, when he gave us the power to morph?"

Ax didn't answer.

"Did I say something wrong?" I finally asked.

<I'm not Elfangor,> he said. <I'm more like you. Just a young one. Elfangor was a great prince. My people might understand and forgive what Elfangor did, because he was an important person.>

Just a kid, trying to fight a war he didn't have enough power to fight. But I don't think I'd fully appreciated the position he was in before then. Ax wasn't like us. We might not be completely sure that our family was safe, but we knew they were right there for us. His parents didn't even know where he was. Didn't know that he was alive, that Elfangor was dead. And his actions in this war would be scrutinised as the actions of a soldier. If we came out of this alive, or even died but succeeded, people would look on us as five kids who did what they could, no matter how many times we failed or even how many laws we broke. But if Ax fought wrong, or broke his laws...

It was hardly consolation for him putting us at risk, or putting the people we were trying to protect at risk. But I could sort of understand his problem.

"I see," I said. "You know what? Why don't you morph to human and come inside? You could meet my mom and dad. We're just about to have dinner."

<I have eaten already.>

"You've eaten, huh?" Now was probably not the right time to ask. "Okay, but you could still come in. You don't have to eat much. Just hang out. Come on, it would do you good."

<Do me good? Do I seem ill?>

"No. Just lonely. You seem very lonely."

Ax avoided my gaze. Andalite warriors, I knew, weren’t supposed to feel afraid. I guess they weren’t supposed to feel lonely either.

<How would you explain to your family who I was?> was all he asked.

I shrugged. “I told my parents that the Animorphs were a study group. You're just here to do biology homework. Come on.”

The Animorphs had taken to stashing spare clothing in my barn, in case they needed to morph to come over. As it was we were spending a fortune on bus money to see each other. Neither Jake nor Marco was exactly Ax's human size, but we were able to put together an outfit from their clothes that didn't look too out-of-place. Rachel probably would've said it was horrible, but my family wouldn't notice.

I led him inside. My father was in the kitchen. He raised his eyebrows. “Who's your friend, Cassie?” he asked, with a friendly smile for Ax.

I thought fast. Probably should've picked a name in advance. “This is Axim... Maximillian. Max. He's in our study group, and he left his notes here earlier. So he came by to pick them up.”

“Ah, she deigns to introduce us to a member of the esteemed study group. Nice to meet you, Max. Has Cassie been ranting about animals to you?”

"No," Ax said. "She asked me to eat your food. Food. Ood-duh."

That wasn't the smoothest segue, but my father didn't seem to notice. "Well, someone has to eat it. Might as well be you who suffers. I cooked tonight. Made my world-famous chili."

Oh. Right. I'd forgotten about the chili. "Oh. Chili? Um, Max said he wasn't really hungry. He already ate."

"Is chili a very frightening food?" Ax asked me.

Her father grinned. "Mine is."

"Is that a boy I hear? A friend of Cassie's, perhaps?" my mother called from the next room. She ducked her head around the door.

“This is Max, Mom,” I said.

“Max. Hi.” She smiled a warm, somewhat hopeful smile. "Are you staying for some of the Chili of Doom?"

“He's not very hungry,” I repeated. “In fact, he just ate. So he probably won't want any chili."

Mom smiled at Dad. "Isn't it just precious the way she tries to protect him?"

"Too late," Dad said. "He's trapped now. There is no escape."

I could see what my parents were doing. I couldn't fault them for being so happy to actually have proof that I'd made a friend besides Rachel. But maybe I'd bring people around more often if my parents weren't so weird.

Ax sat down awkwardly. Fortunately, using a knife and fork was one of the random skills he'd picked up while trying to learn about humanity. My father served him up the chili with naan bread.

I poured everyone a large glass of milk. And stood ready to pour a second round of milk.

Ax scooped up a forkful and manoeuvred it carefully into his mouth. He started to chew, then froze. His eyes grew wide.

"This is a wonderful food!" he cried.

"Excuse me?" my mother said.

"Ah HAH! At last. Someone who understands the joy of hot food!"my father cried. Ax's bowl was already almost empty; my father filled it again. "There's plenty more."

"Um, Max?" I said. "You really don't have to eat that much."

"I'll eat yours!" he cried. The look on his face was manic. If I hadn't already seen him react the same way to chocolate, it probably would have been terrifying.

"I love this kid," my dad said. "I wonder if his parents would let us adopt him. Max, you are a very discerning, intelligent young man."

"He's insane," Mom said. "There's no other explanation."

All things considered, it was probably better that she think of him as insane now than wait to be surprised later.

I kicked Ax under the table. He looked up at me. I smiled, and kicked him again.

“That's probably enough chili,” I said insistently.

"Yes. That is enough chili," he agreed, pushing the bowl away. "Chili. Li. Chee-lee."

After dinner, we watched television for a while. At least that didn't leave much chance for Ax to do anything suspicious. When my mom began to fall asleep, Ax whispered in my ear. “I must go. It has been almost two of your hours.”

I nodded. “Just let me get those notes for you,” I said, for my father's benefit. I dashed up to my room and grabbed a small book before walking Ax outside.

"So what did you think of my parents?" I asked as we walked away from the house.

"I liked them," Ax said. "But why has your father removed the hair from his head? Hair. Hayyer. I meant to ask him, but forgot."

"He's going bald," I explained. "It's probably better not to mention it. It's a normal thing for humans. But some people get sensitive about it."

"Ah, yes. My father's hooves are getting dull. It's normal as well, but he doesn't like to talk about it."

"What are your parents like?"

"They are... just normal parents. They are very nice. They are…"

"Go on."

"My throat feels strange," Ax said. "Like there is an obstruction. I am having difficulty speaking. Ing. Is this normal?"

I linked my arm with his. "You miss them. That's normal."

"An andalite warrior may spend many years in space, far from his home and family. That's normal."

"And I'm sure they all miss their families, too."

We were far enough from the house for Ax to safely morph. But before he did, I wrapped my arms around him and pushed his head into my shoulder.

I don't know if andalites hug. Ax was familiar with the concept from watching other humans, I'm sure, but he didn't seem to know how to react. After a moment, he placed his arms carefully around my ribs. I let him go.

Ax didn't look at me while he morphed. Before he left, I handed him the book I'd grabbed from my room.

“By the way, here's a book for you, since you're done with the World Almanac. It's a book of quotes. Stuff that famous people said."

<Thank you,> he replied, taking it in one hand.

"Ax, you know that Jake and Tobias and me, and even Rachel and Marco, we all care about you. You know that, right? You're not just some alien to us."

<Thank you for the chili,> was all he said in response. <It was wonderful.> Then he galloped off toward the trees.

Once I'd gotten back inside, I cornered my parents.

“Was that really necessary?” I asked them.

“What? We were just being nice.”

“You know what you were doing.”

“Actually sweetie,” Mum said, “we think it's kind of admirable, how you're helping that boy out.”

“Yeah, the study group's going pretty well,” I responded, reminding myself to get some homework done and make sure my grades reflected that.

“Yeah, that was a good idea. But it was especially good of you to include that boy. I mean, some people need a little extra help, and I'm so proud of you for providing it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know. Since he's learning-disabled.”

I'm not sure how I managed to keep a straight face at the blithe claim that the interstellar physics genius had a learning disability, but somehow, I did. “You'd be surprised at how smart he can be, Mom. Max is only incredibly stupid in certain areas.”

“It's not nice to call people stupid, Cassie.”


	11. Chapter 11

“I know Ax doesn't usually show up to these meetings,” Rachel said as she perched on the edge of the workbench in the Barn, “but where's Tobias?”

<Here! I'm here!> Tobias swooped in and landed on a rafter. <Sorry I'm late.>

Jake shrugged. It's not as if we'd ever really had set meeting times. “Okay,” he said. “No distractions this time. We have one window of opportunity to hit the yeerk pool while they're not using it – tomorrow. So we're going to sit down and actually plan this out instead of rushing in and almost dying.”

<Ax can't do tomorrow,> Tobias said. <Can we do Sunday?>

“Why?” I asked. “He's stranded alone on an alien planet! What can he possibly have going on?”

<He made me promise not to tell,> Tobias replied apologetically.

Rachel rolled her eyes. “More secrets. What a surprise.”

“No!” Jake put up a hand. “No more distractions, no more topic changes. We can all be mad at Ax later.”

“There may not be a later,” Marco said. “He made you promise not to tell? That's enough for you? You're keeping secrets for him now?”

<Yeah, I am,> Tobias said defensively. <Because he's my friend, and I trust him.>

“Does he trust you? No, don't answer that; he told you his big secret, it's just the rest of us he doesn't trust. Let me guess, he needed your help, right?”

I shared a glance with Jake. This conversation was getting us nowhere. All it was accomplishing was making everyone angrier.

“Can we just get back on topic?” Jake asked wearily.

“I just want to be sure we can trust – ”

“Ax aside, I trust Tobias,” I said firmly. “And he'd tell us if we were in danger. He always does. So. Sunday?”

“ I can't do Sunday,” Jake said. “I have a family thing.”

Nobody questioned that. A 'family thing' meant Tom, and Jake couldn't afford to look suspicious.

“So we're down the guy who actually knows anything about yeerks,” Marco sighed. “Not that he'd – ” he fell silent at Jake's poisonous look.

“Right, um... do we need any new morphs?” I asked, to break the tension. “Tobias on surveillance, Rachel and Marco have morphs that can break stuff, Jake and me can run interference with the guards... we should be alright, shouldn't we?”

“Unless we need something new to break in,” Jake said. “I'm thinking, same way in as last time? They don't know how we got in last time.”

“Yeah, but Rachel shouldn't be the human,” Marco pointed out. “I mean I don't think anyone would recognise her from last time, but we still shouldn't establish a pattern.”

“Right, same as last time, except Cassie takes us in,” Jake said.

“Why do I have to do it?” I asked.

“Because you're a girl,” Marco said. “Guys don't walk into fashion shops and use change rooms. We just don't.”

I didn't see any point in arguing. “Um, those of you who are roaches might want to be flies for this,” I pointed out. “You know, in case of taxxons. We can keep high out of their way.”

Jake shuddered. “Good point.”

“I don't understand how they can eat insects!” I frowned. “They obviously need so much energy! There's no reason to – ”

“No distractions includes biology distractions,” Jake interrupted. “Okay... best time for everyone?”


	12. Chapter 12

We decided to make our attack at 3:15pm, about fifteen minutes before the shop closed on Saturdays.

The reason for this was that, according to Tobias, there was a window between 4 and 5 on Saturdays where there weren't many people around the mall. Most of the normal shops had closed, and it was too early for dinner or whatever.

We were planning so that, if we had to flee through the mall as a herd of various wounded animals, there would be as few people in our way as possible.

Everyone stashed their outer clothing in the corner of some run-down shed with at least three layers of graffiti on it and got small. Everyone except me, of course. Oh no, I would have to do some shopping. I stared at the graffiti while they morphed. I didn't know who Supa-J was, or why he'd felt the need to scrawl his name over a very nice-looking if illegal portrait of a horse, nor why somebody had drawn some kind of crude star-in-a-triangle over the top of that. But I hoped he was having a better day than we were.

I couldn't stop my hands from trembling as I browsed through the clothing racks, looking for something close to my size. Rachel wasn't helping.

<Make sure you don't get anything too pale, it wouldn't work with your skin tone,> she advised. <I mean, I know you're going to say that pastels seem to be coming back, but you need a bit more experience to put together a good pastel outfit.>

<You realise she's not actually shopping for clothes, right?> Jake pointed out.

<Uh, yeah, but if she grabs something really horrible then the checkout girl – >

<Won't care.>

I glanced at the checkout girl and figured that Jake was right. She looked tense. Twitchy. As I watched, she physically winced and gave a little moan. Her hands were clenched into tight little fists.

I wanted to walk over and tell her to ride it out, to not make a scene, to just let the yeerk die and then get out of town as quickly and quietly as she could. But if she got recaptured and remembered me telling her that, it would put all of us in danger. So I bit my lip, grabbed a random top and headed for the change rooms.

I headed for the stall with the entrance in it and fiddled with the mirror until I found the catch. I left my outer clothing in a different stall before closing the mirror, and the second soundproofed door, behind me.

There was something very, very strange about standing in that corridor. It took a moment for me to pinpoint it: the silence. There was no distant echo of human screams and hork-bajir shouts. It was disconcerting, but it was kind of hard to dislike the change.

I focused on the fly inside me.

<I'm done,> I reported.

<Good,> Jake said. <Ax, how long have we – dammit. It's been, what, fifteen minutes?>

<Call it twenty to be safe,> Rachel suggested.

<Alright. Then we should get a move on.>

<Chaaaaarge!> Rachel cried as she zoomed forward. <Woo!> I'd forgotten that the fly was a new morph for Rachel. She seemed to like how well it could, well, fly.

As the cavern opened up in front of us, it became clear that the lack of screams weren't the only change. There was a lot less noise in general. Less smells, too. We could tell where the cafeteria was, but there was nothing fresh being cooked there. There was much less of the sweaty smell I associated with people.

<Are we alone?> I asked.

<Can't be,> Marco said. <There has to be guards. They're probably just not walking about or talking.>

<To the cafeteria,> Jake said decisively. We went to the cafeteria, and got into battle morphs under the counter. It was deserted. Marco's ape bulk took up most of the space behind the counter. Rachel was only partly morphed; she was going elephant so that she could break as much as possible, and the morph was just too big.

<Cassie and I will have a look at what we're facing before we bring you guys out,> Jake said. Wolves and tigers were both very stealthy animals.

Keeping low, we rounded the counter and peeked around the door, into the main pool area.

We were not alone.

I counted six hork-bajir sitting or standing around in the pool area. The pool itself had a tarp over it. Everything was pretty much where I remembered it being; the outer buildings, the earthmoving equipment, the cages. But not all of the cages were empty. There were a handful of humans spread between them, one or two to a cage. They mostly just sat on the floor staring at nothing. I supposed they'd probably been there for a while. Some of them were asleep. I noticed two holding hands through the bars. A young woman was idly braiding her hair.

The hork-bajir cages weren't empty either. The seven hork-bajir spread between them mostly growled at the guards, but they too seemed to have lost interest in shouting and screaming quite some time ago.

<Jake,> I said, <the humans. If we can get them out...>

<Right,> he said. <Let's – >

“ _Hruthin! Ghafrash hruthin!_ ” one of the guards shouted, pointing toward us.

<We've been spotted!> Jake announced. <Goal is to rescue the humans if we can.>

A gorilla bounded over us, barely fitting through the doorway. Rachel wasn't fully morphed yet, but we didn't have time to wait. Guards rushed at us.

Too many guards.

There had been more guards in the buildings.

I was too busy tearing at hork-bajir throats to count them. There was over a dozen. Some came in close and slashed at us, others fired Dracon beams into the fray, not caring if they hit their allies. Jake screamed in my head as the flesh along his spine was burned away. I screamed back as an arm blade took off my front leg. The air around me was a mass of blades and a haze of sound; hork-bajir screaming threats and abuse in a strange mix of English and what I assume was their language, humans in the cages screaming in fear or shouting encouragement, and caged hork-bajir bellowing and huffing, slamming their blades against the bars in excitement.

Rachel trumpeted and charged through the cafeteria wall, then almost immediately trumpeted in pain as Dracon beams were fired at her. Her eyes were bleeding. I took the wrist of a Dracon-wielding guard in my jaws and clamped down. But there were too many.

<Careful of the cages!> Marco snapped at Rachel. <If you let those people out now they'll all be killed!>

<I'm blind, I can't see the cages!> Rachel replied, tossing her head and flinging a hork-bajir onto the pool tarp.

<Then go left!> Marco advised. Rachel veered left and plowed into a small group of hork-bajir, trampling them underfoot. The people in the cages cheered, and a few hork-bajir gave their strange, huffing laugh.

<The hork-bajir cages!> I said. <Rachel, turn around, take two sideways steps right, then go forward!>

<Sure, let's smuggle hork-bajir out,> Marco said. <I'm sure nobody will notice a bunch of walking cuisinarts strolling out of the mall.>

But Rachel understood. She followed my directions, ripping the fronts from the cages with her tusk. Bellowing hork-bajir poured out of the cages and leapt at the Controllers.

Hork-bajir blades were brought against hork-bajir blades. It was impossible to tell friend from foe, impossible for us to keep fighting. It wouldn't turn the tide, but it gave us a brief respite. Marco started ripping the doors from the human cages while Jake guided Rachel off to demorph and heal her eyes.

<If you stay here, you will be reinfested,> I told the caged people bluntly. <If you escape, you might be caught and killed. But if you're smart and move fast, you might be free. The choice is yours.>

About a third of the humans stayed huddled in their cages. The others rushed past us, some with a brief thank you or a few words of support, and headed for various exits. I supposed they'd know their own way out.

The hork-bajir we'd freed were quickly overpowered, but the time the Controllers were free to attack us again, Rachel was a bear and Jake was fully healed. The Controllers lifted their bladed arms, and those that still had guns raised them.

<Okay, now let's show these guys some manners,> Rachel growled, loping forward. She roared.

“Raaaaaaawr!”

“Tseeeeeer!”

I froze, which cost me an ear.

<Tobias?!> Rachel asked, equal parts confused and angry.

<Hey, guys. Having fun?>

<How did you even get down here?!>

<Well, Ax had to go off and do andalite stuff and I got bored and I thought I'd see how you're doing,> he said conversationally. <Oh and Jake, I managed to learn something about andalite culture.> He dipped low to rake his talons across a hork-bajir-Controller's eyes.

<That's great, but this really isn't the time,> Jake said, sinking his teeth into a thigh.

Tobias ignored him. <They take command really, really seriously. Andalite soldiers all need someone to give them orders.>

<'Prince Jake' kinda gathered that.>

A note of desperation crept into Tobias' mental voice. <And according to andalite morality, orders supercede everything except the law. If your commanding officer tells you to do something, then the consequences are his problem; a soldier follows orders.>

<Wait,> I said, dodging the swipe of a bladed arm, <that sounds really, really dangerous! So an andalite Prince could order something really horrible and his people would be totally justified in going along with it?! But that – >

<Tobias,> Jake interrupted, <I order you to break your promise to Ax and tell us where he is and what he's doing.>

<He's heading for a clearing in the forest, in order to assassinate Visser Three.>

There was mental silence for a few seconds. The yeerk pool was still filled with things to destroy, and we'd be unopposed if we managed to overpower the guards, but...

<So we're ditching the fight in order to go help the alien idiot?> Rachel asked.

<Yeah,> Jake said. <Let's go.>


	13. Chapter 13

<So, why is Ax attacking Visser Three by himself?> Marco asked conversationally as we flew toward the forest.

<Visser Three killed his brother, he's honor-bound to avenge him,> Tobias replied. <When we went to the astronomy tower to destroy Ax's program, we ran into a Controller with a grudge against Visser Three. He was the one who screwed up their shipping patterns so that they couldn't shuttle some people onto the Pool ship in time to get their yeerks fed. He also knew where the Visser goes to feed his host.>

<What happened, did Visser Three behead his mom?>

<Let his friend starve, I think. But anyway, Ax is playing assassin out there and it's not gonna be good.>

<How did you get down to the yeerk pool to find us?> Rachel asked.

<I didn't think I would. But the salesgirl seemed to be having some yeerk trouble, so I asked her if she'd like to let me in and strike a blow for freedom. We should land here; the clearing's nearby and we don't want to be spotted.>

We did. Tobias kept watch while we got into battle morphs, then fluttered down onto Rachel's shoulder. Jake, having the stealthiest morph, took point.

Then we felt it; the creeping, paralysing dread. Jake froze in front of me. Rachel gave a low growl. I fought against the wolf's instinct to cower.

Visser Three.

<Spread out,> he ordered in open thought-speak. <You! Watch the tree line. You two to the far side of the meadow. Shoot anything that moves.>

<I guess we're close,> Jake commented shakily. <Let's find Ax.>

We moved forward. Surprised a hork-bajir; one slash of Jake's claws dispatched him before he could cry out. Kept moving.

<Do we know what he is, Tobias?> I asked. <If he's an andalite right now, he won't get five steps.>

Visser Three's voice roared in our heads. <There is a snake! Find it! Kill it!>

<I'm guessing he might be a snake,> Tobias said, just as two more hork-bajir spotted us.

“Hruthin!” one shouted.

<Attack!> Jake ordered instantly. He needn't have bothered; Rachel was already charging. Jake and I each took a side and finished off what Rachel left. <Tobias, find Ax,> Jake added. <Everyone else, keep moving. We don't want a full-on fight out here.>

We moved away from the hork-bajir as quickly as we could. It was less than a minute before Tobias said, <Found him! North of you... to your left! He needs backup! Now!> The cry of a red-tailed hawk rang out somewhere to our left. We changed direction.

Ax was a half-morphed and limbless. Over him stood a hork-bajir, with one arm up to protect his eyes from Tobias. The other bladed arm was raised, ready to strike down on Ax's neck.

<Rachel,> Jake said.

Rachel charged. The hork-bajir went flying. But more were coming in, from all directions. Marco barrelled forward; Jake disappeared into the trees. I followed Jake's example. The woods we were in were a wolf's natural environment; I might as well take advantage of it.

But it seemed like forests were a good place for hork-bajir too. Their eyes weren't great and couldn't track me very well, but they moved through the trees like a fog. That didn't matter, though. I wasn't going for a high kill count. I was trying to keep them away from Ax. I would appear, take a bite, hide. Occasionally, a hork-bajir chasing me would suddenly howl in pain, a tiger's slash wound appearing on their body.

<Three hork-bajir in the trees,> Tobias reported, <Jake and Cassie are keeping them busy. Two guarding the Bug fighters. Visser Three and two hork-bajir in the centre of the meadow.>

<Can you run Bug fighter interference, Marco?> Rachel asked. <Ax and I are gonna have a nice talk with Visser Three.>

<He's my responsibility,> Ax insisted. <I have an obligation of honor.>

<Uh-huh,> Rachel said. <He's all yours.>

Jake and I were a little busy with our hork-bajir to get a good view of what was happening in the valley. I faced down a hork-bajir, growling, as Jake snuck behind to hamstring him, and we moved on.

<Your Visser is finished,> Ax called out, presumably to the other Controllers. <You can die with him, or you can run.>

<What's going on?> Jake asked as he disappeared once more and I fled from the blades of our other two pursuers. But the hork-bajir seemed to have changed their minds. They turned and ran.

Jake and I headed for the clearing.

Visser Three was lying on the ground. A small stream ran through the clearing; he'd fallen partly into it, but didn't seem to have the strength to stand. Ax stood over him, tail-blade raised. Behind him, a grizzly bear, gorilla, and red-tailed hawk stood like an honor guard.

<No way!> Tobias cried. He launched himself from Rachel's shoulder, right for Visser Three's head.


	14. Chapter 14

<No! No! No!> Tobias skimmed down just above Visser Three's face, then rose. He swooped up and away, into the sky.

<Tobias, what is it?> Jake asked.

<The yeerk! He bailed! He's in the water, but I can't see him!>

Dammit! I had a morph perfect for pulling things out of the water, and absolutely no time to morph it! I darted for the stream as a wolf, but I already knew it would be no use. The yeerk was gone.

Would his people find him before he starved? We could only wait and see.

I should have known the instant he bailed. I should have noticed the sudden absence of the aura of fear and dread. I guess I must be getting pretty good at suppressing it, not to notice. So there was that.

Ax stood over the helpless andalite. He seemed reluctant to move.

<Nobody except Ax speak to him,> Jake told us unnecessarily. <He'll notice that we're not andalites.> Even at this late stage, with the andalite moments from death, none of us was willing to take a chance on the truth.

But the andalite was ignoring us. He was focused on Ax, poised over hm. <Kill me,> he managed to gasp. <Kill me before he takes me over again. Please. Please kill me.>

Ax's mental voice was gentle. <I may have already killed you, my friend. The snake...>

<No. You don't understand. Visser Three... he has backup forces ready. They'll be here in minutes. Half a dozen Bug fighters. They'll keep this body alive, your poison is too slow.>

<I... but you're an andalite. I can't kill you,> Ax said desperately. <I can't...>

<He'll take me again,> the andalite said, begging. <The yeerks will find him and bring me to him again. Please. I can't live that way... please. The things I've seen... you don't understand. It's horrible.>

He tried to raise his own tail. He tried to bring the blade to his throat. But the venom had weakened him. His tail fell limp.

<I understand,> he said at last. The sorrow in his message would've brought tears to my eyes, if I were human. <Listen ... my name is ... what is my name? It's been so long. And the poison... yes, that's it. My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. I was once a war-prince. Someday... someday, if you survive... I have a wife. I have two children... someday… tell them I still hope... tell them I still have love for them...>

<Yes, War-Prince Alloran,> Ax said in the same detached voice he used to report injury in battle. <I will tell them. Do you have any other orders for me?>

Alloran tried to lift his hand. Ax bent down and took it.

<Fight them,> Alloran said. <Fight them. They are stronger than you think. They have... they have infiltrated... they are on the home world... fight...>

He fell silent, unconscious.

Gently, Ax set his hand down. He moved Alloran's head out of the water.

<We should get out of here,> Jake said.

<Come on, Ax,> Tobias said. <There will be another time.>

And so we left the andalite dying in the meadow, not sure whether to hope he could be saved or not. After all the times we’d agreed to die rather than be made Controllers, we couldn’t offer the same escape to Alloran.

I hoped Tobias was right. I hoped that there would be another time.


	15. Chapter 15

Two days later, Tobias came around with a message. Ax wanted to see us all in his clearing.

He looked a little nervous as we demorphed on the edge of the clearing and walked in to meet him. He avoided our gaze with his main eyes; his stalk eyes, as always, skimmed the immediate area, looking for threats.

“What is it, Ax?” Rachel asked. “Let me guess; Visser Three lived and we need to finish the job?”

<No. I mean, I don't know about that. It's...> he seemed to steel himself, and looked at Jake. <It's called Seerow's Kindness.>

Jake frowned. “What is?”

<The law. Our most sacred law. We are not to share technology or information with other species.>

"You don't want any competition," Marco said. "You andalites want to be able to stay on top. I understand that. But humans are on your side. We're the ones being taken over."

Ax didn't respond, or look at him. He didn't look at anyone except Jake.

"Marco," Jake said. "Chill. Let Ax tell his own story."

<Seerow was a great andalite. A warrior. A scientist. He ... he was in charge of the first andalite expedition to the yeerk home world.>

With that, Ax had our full attention. I remembered standing with him under the moonlight. _Every species has something to be ashamed of. Every species carries some terrible guilt._

<Seerow felt sorry for the yeerks. They were an intelligent species. They used a primitive species called gedds as hosts. But the gedds were nearly blind, clumsy, not very useful. The yeerks had never even seen the stars, let alone been able to leave their own planet. Seerow felt sorry for them. Seerow was a kind, decent andalite…>

Everything clicked into place. "Oh my God," I whispered. "That's the big secret. That's the shame the andalites are hiding."

"What?" Rachel asked. "What's the big secret?"

"Seerow gave the yeerks advanced technology, didn't he?" I asked.

Ax glanced at me briefly, and nodded. <Seerow thought the yeerks should be able to travel to the stars, as we did. At first, it seemed like the right thing to do. But then... a species called the nahara... By the time we found out, it was too late. The entire species was enslaved by the yeerks. Then came the hork-bajir. The taxxons. And other planets… other races were falling to the yeerk empire. They spread like a disease! Millions… billions of free people have been enslaved or destroyed by the yeerks. Because of Seerow. Because of us. Because of the andalites.>

For a long time, none of us spoke. I glanced between the other people in the clearing. Ax, looking like he was on trial and waiting for our verdict. Tobias, looking the same as he always did, expressionless. Rachel looked mildly frustrated. Marco looked slightly confused. Jake was just frowning at Ax.

"Elfangor broke the law of Seerow's Kindness, though, right?" Marco pointed out slowly.

<Yes. But I will take the blame for him. Elfangor was a great hero. His name would be destroyed. I'm a nobody. I have taken the blame, on orders from High Command.>

“Wait,” I asked, “when did that happen?”

<When we went to destroy the telescope software. It was already set up and I…> he looked away with all four eyes. <I reported on the current situation on Earth, and on my brother’s death, to High Command and… to my parents.> He looked back at us. <If I help you, and you humans become a new race of conquerors, if you become the new yeerks someday, my people will talk about Aximili's Kindness. And I'll be the one who goes down in history as the new example of a fool.>

The Animorphs all exchanged little glances with each other. Everyone except Tobias began to smile.

Marco rolled his eyes. “Man, and I was really getting into disliking you, Ax.”

Ax froze up, like he was being cornered by an unknown predator. <I do not understand. I am unpractised at human body language, but you do not look angry.>

<We're not,> Tobias said.

<Don't you understand? Your world is threatened by the yeerks because of my people.>

Jake nodded. "Yes, we understand, Ax. A long time ago someone tried to be nice and it was a disaster. This Seerow person tried to be a good guy. He hoped all the different people of the galaxy would get along. That we'd all go to the stars together."

<Yes, and the result was terrible.>

"Ax, you don't stop hoping just because it doesn't always work out," I said. "You get more careful. You get wiser, maybe. But you keep hoping. If humans made a policy of not trying something every again because it ended in disaster once, we'd still live in caves."

"Look, Ax," Jake said, "we don't want you to give us any andalite technology. We don't want you to break your laws. We understand that you can't do that, that's not a problem. We just want you to trust us. Tell us the truth. Be one of us."

"You aren't alone, Ax," I said softly. "Maybe we aren't your people, but we are your friends."

"Your boy Seerow wasn't wrong," Marco said. "He just hooked up with the wrong species. We aren't the yeerks. We're _Homo sapiens_ , Jack. Humans. Andalites want someone to cruise the stars with them? We're the ones. You bring the spaceships. We'll bring the Raisinets and cinnamon buns."

Ax smiled his andalite smile. <You'll do more than that. Humans... you learn very quickly. Someday you may be even greater than the andalites.>

"No," Jake said. "Because whatever we learn, you'll learn. We'll do it together. Human and andalite. Andalite and human."

<It isn't possible,> Ax said. <We are two different species. From two different worlds, a billion Earth miles apart.>

<Ax-man?> Tobias said. <Tell me: What does an andalite want most? What is it you guys are fighting for ?>

I expected him to say honor. But instead, he said with certainty, <For freedom, of course.>

<And what do humans want most?> Tobias asked.

"Freedom," Jake said.

"Freedom," Rachel said, nodding her head.

"Freedom," said Marco and I together.

<Freedom,> Tobias said. <Different bodies, different species, maybe. But who cares? We agree on what matters.>

Suddenly, Ax laughed in our minds. <See? It's happening already,> Ax said.

"What?" Rachel asked.

<You humans are already teaching andalites something new,> Ax said. <You're right. We fight the same battle, for the same goal.>

“The andalites on your home world may not like that idea," Rachel pointed out.

<No. They won't. They have their laws and customs. They think they know what's right. If I ever go home, I'll have a lot to explain.>

He'd already declared his intention to take the blame for giving us morphing technology. In for a penny, in for a pound, right?

<Maybe so,> Tobias said. <But I know one andalite who would have been proud of you.>

It was Jake who put a hand on his shoulder and asked the important question. "So. Are you with us?"

<Yes, Prince Jake,> Ax said.

"Don't call me 'Prince.'"

<Yes, Prince Jake.>

"All right," Marco said, rubbing his hands together. "Now that's over with. And now that we are finally all levelling and telling the truth ... I think we have one very big question for Ax. One huge question that will put our new friendship to the test. One gigantic question."

Ax eyed Marco nervously. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, <What?>

"How, how, HOW do you eat without a mouth?" Marco demanded.

Ax laughed. <We eat as we run. Our hooves crush the grass, and the nutrients are absorbed into our systems, We drink in the same way, by putting a hoof into water.> He reared up on his back legs, lifting a front hoof to show us a strange, pulpy surface on the bottom, protected by rings of what looked like keratin with strange little teeth. He wasn't able to balance on two legs for very long, so I only got a glance.

<Ahhh, so that's what the whole thing is with the morning ritual, when you stick a hoof in the water,> Tobias said.

Morning ritual?

"What morning ritual?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, tell us," I said.

<Okay,> Ax agreed. <I will tell you everything. Everything I know.>

I smiled. I was under no illusions that Ax's newfound level of trust was going to solve all our problems. The difficulty with dealing with new species is that not only are cultural clashes inevitable, it's impossible to even predict what those conflicts would be. But we would overcome them. We would find a way.

“You guys realise that if he had killed Alloran, it pretty much would've done Visser Three in,” Marco pointed out. “As it is, though, we can't assume anything.” We were meeting in my barn to discuss our next move.

<I don't fancy the yeerks' chances of finding one little yeerk in that stream,> Tobias pointed out. Rachel nodded silently in agreement.

“They're a big force,” Marco said. “And when they found Alloran, all alone and uninfested, they would've immediately started looking. If he had've been dead, they would've assumed that Visser Three died with him.”

“Are you saying that Ax should've killed a helpless andalite?” I asked.

“What? No, of course not. I'm saying that with all that happened, we shouldn't assume any kind of victory here. The huge alien force would've found Visser Three, and even if they didn't, we'll just be fighting some other invader in Alloran's body.”

“It was a victory,” I argued. “You might be right about Visser Three, but killing him wasn't the goal. We hurt them a little, in the yeerk pool; not as much as we wanted, but we freed some people. Some of those people, if they're quick and smart, will get out. They'll be free. And they have the knowledge to protect themselves and their families. That's our ultimate goal, isn't it? Freeing people?” I felt Jake's hand close around mine, and gave it a squeeze. “And as for Alloran... the fact that he's still in enemy hands doesn't make his few moments of freedom irrelevant. Ax must've been the first andalite he'd had a peaceful conversation with in years. Can you imagine what that meant to him?”

“And next time we see him, we'll be trying to kill each other again. Tiny, momentary victories won't win this war.”

“Neither will dismissing them entirely. Successes are cumulative, Marco.”

Before he could reply, we were interrupted by a large thump against the barn door. In theory, it could've been one of my parents, but Tobias' lack of concern proved that that wasn't the case. A moment later, the door opened, and Ax stumbled in, brushing dirt from one grazed knee. “Two legs are very unstable,” he grumbled. “Legs. Leeeegzzz. Unsssstay-bul.”

“Glad you could make it, Ax,” Jake said. “Now, onto business – kicking yeerk butt.”

My name is Cassie, and my friend is an alien. I don't know if he characterises himself as a friend, exactly – but even if he doesn't, it doesn't matter. We can trust each other. We can fight together. And for now, that is enough.


End file.
